Improvement in temples for spectacles



G. w. Malas.

Temples for Spectacles.

NO. 139,90). Patentedlune17,l873.

y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE W. MEIGS, `OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN TEMPLES FOR SPECTACLES.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 139,909, dated June 17, 1873; application led January 24, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEo. W. MEIcs, of Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Temples for Spectacles, of which the following is a specitication, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a view of the complete spectacle-frame. Fig. 2 is a side view of the temple, With the half-joint by which it is hinged to the lens-frame and the small ball commonly found on the other end of the temple. Fig. 3 is a side view of the temple without this half-joint and ball. Fig. 4t isa detached enlarged view of the outer side of this half-joint. Fig. 5 is a detached, enlarged view of this half-joint-a plan view, so to speak. Fig. 6 is a central lengthwise section of this half-joint through the dotted line x fr.

central `vertical sec- Fig. 7 is a view, enlarmof the little ball a much superior article.

These temples have heretofore been made of one piece of metal (steel) always by skilled workmen. The Workman drew out on an anvil, under the hammer, the whole temple,

. leaving a little knob of metal at each end,

one of which knobs Was afterward Worked, by ling, into a half-joint, and the other into the little ball; the long and slender body of the temple was also worked into shape by filing. v

The mere statement of this process shows that its practice required the services of a highly-skilled Workman, and that such an article made by such a process could never be produced successfully in this country where labor, and especially skilled labor, is so high priced. Such is the fact, and all these temples have heretofore been made in Europe, where labor costs but a fraction of its price here. Not only this, but it is practically impossible to make the long` and slender body of the temple perfectly round and uniform from end to end, which is necessary in order toenable it to take a uniform spring-temper from end to end.

This improvement entirely cures both these troubles.

I make this temple in three parts, from steel wire, which is readily drawn perfectly uniform. I make the body a, the half-joint b. I punch out of sheet metal of just the right thickness and then finish it up by filing and drilling. The little ball c I also punch out and finish up byturning and liling. Into the end of the half-joint I bore a round hole, (see Fig. 6,) just large enough to receive the end of the body a. I do the same with the ball e. (See Fig. 8.) I make little notches a. near the ends of the body a. These ends, thus notched, I introduce into the holes bored for them in the half-joint and the ball.` I then put the halfjoint and the ball into a press, and apply force enough to compress the metal upon the wire and to force the metal to fill the notches, thus securely fastening these parts to the wire body, which is then nished up in the i common manner. The half-joint and ball can readily be compressed tight enough upon the wire to make the parts hold iirmly together Without notching the Wire, and such process I mean to be covered by my claim, but I cousider the notching preferable. The half-joint and the ball can also be soldered ou, and this process I also mean my claim to cover; but this course is objectionable because it must be done after the temples are tempered, with the dangerof destroying the temper, and also because in cleaning off the superabundance of solder, whichwould be done by tiling, there is great danger of tiling into the wire, and thus weakening the temple at the spot where its greatest strain comes.

I claim as my invention- A temple made in parts, and having the half-joint and the ball, either or both, fastened to the body, substantially as described and for the purposes set forth.

GEORGE W. MEIGS. Witnesses:

WM. E. SnvroNDs, GEORGE G. STN. 

